Intellectual Property Law

What’s at Stake in the Surveillance Debate in Congress

By Jennifer Granick

In this week’s Circuit Court column, I write about the legislative battle over changing our communications eavesdropping laws and a related issue of giving telcos immunity for illegally helping the government surveil us. This issue is so important, now that the nominee for Attorney General, Judge Michael Mukasey, says that the President does not have to obey the law if he believes it contradicts his national security responsibilities. Of course, you could argue that the laws are actually less important if the President isn’t even going to follow them. However, if that’s true, lawsuits against telcos may be the only way for the public to find out what our government is actually doing. Read more about one possible future of freedom and privacy here: What’s at Stake in the Surveillance Debate in Congress

Full post as published by The Shout on October 23, 2007 (boomark / email).